


Fill Your Veins With Gushing Gold

by giraffles



Series: Long Live The King [1]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: ''noria no'' ''NORIA YES'', Alternate Universe, Developing Relationship, F/F, I would say I'm sorry but I'm not, Lesbians, Saiyan Culture, Saiyan Waifus, Seaweed Saiyans, headcanons, royal au, this is all ocs for the most part, vegeta hates sand worms, y'all need more lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 04:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9802154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giraffles/pseuds/giraffles
Summary: Slow down, it's a scienceShe's been waiting to bring you downCassava is the head of the Royal Science Division. She has no need for attachments, emotional or otherwise, but she should know by now that life has a way of surprising those who study it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for Star <3

      "Cass," Noria's voice held a hint of nervousness, "Are you sure this was a good idea?"   
  
It's not like the Speaker to be nervous. Noria is the epitome of grace and poise, duty and honor, bloody knuckles and hymns to the moon. Noria can be relentless, obnoxious, needlessly prying; but she doesn't do _nervous_. Cassava frowns at her, filing away this information for later with a flick of her tail.   
  
      "It's an excellent idea," Cass counters, "They're native, they're in abundance, and they're powerful. Why shouldn't I use them?"   
  
Noria sighs. "They're sand worms."   
  
      "Yes, sand worms," She returns to her tablet, organizing data streams and ignoring the look the other saiyan is giving her, "Genetically engineered to do my bidding."   
  
It makes perfect sense. The giant, desert dwelling creatures were a plague on their planet, carnivorous  and venomous and dangerous. It was rare in their modern time for anyone to be eaten by one, unless the saiyan in question was exceedingly stupid, but they could still do damage to the young or untrained. In the wild, the sand worms were nothing more than untamed beasts; in her hands, as a product of her mind, they could instead be a great weapon.   
  
Cass personally had little need for field work or combat, so she found alternate ways to be useful. Even when she was young, she was putting their greatest minds to shame with her intelligence and ingenuity. The entirety of the royal palace's science department had been placed under her direction years ago. So, was it not her place to decided what to do with it?   
  
Noria is quiet. Cass continues to fiddle with numbers and outputs. Behind a clear polymer barrier, an enhanced sand worm thrashes about.   
  
      "The king isn't going to like this." Noria says finally.   
  
      "I don't care."   
  
      "Of course you don't," She laughs, "But maybe you need a new hobby."   
  
      "I'm perfectly fine with my hobbies and lack thereof, _thank you_."   
  
Cass bristles, because she _knows_  where this conversation is heading. They've had it too many times before, and Noria is nothing if tenacious. There is no way in Vegeta-sei's twin suns that she is going to take a mate.   
  
"You should find a mate." Noria suggests anyway.   
  
      "No."   
  
      "I can introduce you to some nice boys," Noria steamrolls on, "Or a nice girl or five. Or even--"   
  
      "For the last goddess damn time, no!"   
  
      "Don't be like that."   
  
      "I'll be however I want to be," Cass snarls, "And I could do without your meddling in my life."   
  
She could tell Noria to get the hell out of her lab. Noria might even listen, though it would only be a matter of time before she returned to hassle her. The Speaker is never far from the palace, when not attending to religious duties at least, and she makes a point to insert herself into Cass' space. There is no escaping her. So Cass growls and stomps over to a different table where DNA samples are cooking away in various stages of experiments. Noria follows.   
  
      "I think you would like my daughter," Noria leans against the edge of the counter, and if Cass was a fighter maybe she could have thought about throwing her across the room, "You would balance each other well."   
  
      "Noria," Cass grinds the words between her teeth, "Get the fuck out."   


* * *

   
  
The tests are going well. Of course they are, this is her project, her metaphorical child-- it's perfect in every way. Cass doesn't make mistakes. There are setbacks, petty grievances at the limitations of science, even a few learning experiences. But there are no mistakes. Though she does find that there aren't many volunteers who want to help with the combat data. The saiyans are are warrior race, and yet she's surrounded by cowards. It's the one thing she can't do herself.   
  
There could be an argument made for how many ways Cassava is unsaiyan herself. The war drums that pound in the blood of so many others are silent for her. Raising her own fists in violence does nothing for her, and truth be told, she has little head for battle. Strategy does not interest her beyond what she can dream up to augment their fighting forces. Hell, she's never felt the drive to find a mate (or two, or three, like some do) and settle into a domestic life. Such things are wastes of time; they make no sense to her, and there is no reason she has to participate.   
  
No, she'd much rather be here, in a windowless lab, surrounded by logic and wonders of her own design. Here things made sense, or if they didn't, she knew it was only a matter of time before she unraveled their secrets. There are no distractions today. Noria has abstained from bothering her, and her assistants have long since fled the premises for activities like food and sleep. But Cass can't stop now, not when she's so _close_ , it will only take a little longer, a few more tests--   
  
Someone hesitantly knocks on the door.   
  
Cass can't imagine who it might be. Most know better than to disturb her, or like Noria, don't care and will come in unannounced. Yet this person does not. The gentle knocking comes again.   
  
      "What?" She snaps, "I'm busy."   
  
The door slides open, and a saiyan she's never seen before peeks around the edge.   
  
She's of average height, round faced and certainly no older than Cass herself. She's not apart of the royal guard, as she wears no uniform or insignia, or even anything else that would identify their profession. Few scars can be seen, and she does not dress conservatively, although few do, and it's the height of summer. Cass can't help thinking that she's seen those eyes before. They must be lost.   
  
      "Well?"   
  
      "I was sent to check on you," for all her timid actions the stranger smiles easily, "And make sure you weren't 'working yourself half to death', as mother put it."   
  
The pieces fall into place rather neatly after that. Of course Cass knows those eyes; the subtle shade of deep emerald, the way they look innocent while plotting a galactic downfall, it's all too familiar.   
  
      "You're Noria's." Cass was going to have to murder her. There had to be some way of taking her out and making it look like an accident.   
  
Though the statement was spat like poison, the newcomer is unfazed. She waits in the doorway, tail swishing, posture relaxed. "What are you working on?"   
  
      "Nothing that concerns you."   
  
She snorts. "Well, obviously, but I was curious."   
  
Cass doesn't want anything to do with her, especially if she's the spawn of Noria, but something in the way she talks gives her pause. She hasn't had anyone to yell at in hours,  and the dead ends Cass keeps hitting are starting to grate on her. And, maybe, she can actually scare this one off so that they'll never come back.   
  
      "Fine. Get over here."   
  
The saiyan's eyes light up and Cass swears she _bounces_  as she moves, bells and burnished metal on her clothes chiming in the silence of the lab. She is taller than Cass, but not by much, and this close she can tell she's at a fighter in some context. Latent power thrums through the body standing so near to her, putting Cass' measly power level to shame. But that is all irrelevant, because she has work to focus on.   
  
Cass expects her to grow tired or bored with the explanations of splitting proteins and recoding biological data, but she listens with rapt attention. She's sure most of the information goes over the saiayn's head, but she's interested and listening, which is more than Cass can say for some people. She asks questions, and the scientist does her best to elaborate, though she's never been one for pretty words or working metaphors. Cass tries to find the right way to frame a particular concept and swears up a storm when she can't; the stranger laughs. And it's something bright and new, giving her pause as the sound illuminates the dim room.   
  
      "What's your name, anyway?" She asks, realizing Noria was remiss in mentioning it. Or maybe she had and Cass had ignored her.   
  
      "It's Wakamei," the saiyan in gold and green answers, "But Waka is fine too."   
  
      "Wakamei," the syllables lay heavy on her tongue in a way no others have, "Give your mother a message for me; tell her to fuck off."   
  
The last ditch effort to scare her away fails as Wakamei only laughs again.   


* * *

   
  
Wakamei becomes a steady presence in her life, her protests and reservations about it being pushed aside until they fade into the void. There is something endearing in her determination, in her casual visits and easy conversation. She is not deterred by Cass' bad moods, ferries food to her on late nights, and sometimes brings strange samples from her adventures past the city gates. Wakamei annoys Cass far less than most of the people on this goddess forsaken planet, and that is saying a lot. She refuses to talk with Noria on the matter.   
  
She also refuses to even _begin_  to think about what this might mean. It's a concept too alien and terrifying to consider, on top of the fact she's absolutely abysmal at reading people and their emotions. She wasn't made for this; her place is dark corridors and organized logbooks, not the battlefield of feelings and desires. Cass can feel herself teetering on the edge of the abyss, so close to topping over the point of no return. She puts all those stray feelings in little black boxes and packs them away, putting them up on a shelf far away from her conscious habits, to be unraveled at a later date. Or maybe never. Never was sounding better and better.   
  
It's on a night with only a sliver of a moon in the sky that everything goes wrong.   
  
Cass is outside, for once. Sometimes even she becomes claustrophobic in her workspace and seeks out the open air. The sky is dark, something that happens only briefly on their planet caught in a binary sun system, and not even the city lights can drown out the stars. The air is still, the sounds of civilization fading into the background, and Cass chooses to think about something other than work or intrusive women, like who the hell named all of the constellations anyway. Assigning shapes and meanings to points of light, ones that will change from planet to planet, is so nonsensical. That doesn't even look like a water jug, or a hill cat, or anything else that's more than abstract.   
  
But she supposes she understands the fascination with them. After all, it's where her race comes from, and where they travel to so often. They are apart of an intergalactic community now, and considering the saiyan's mysterious origins, most likely always were. (No, they still hadn't figured out where the ships carrying their ancestors had come from, all those centuries before. There are few records of their arrival, and even fewer accounts of what happened to the ships in question. And then they had other things to worry about between the Tuffles and Arcosians.) There is also something deeply soothing in counting stars, even though she's soon to lose track of where she is and that naming each by sight alone is impossible. It helps to clear her head. At least, it usually did. Which is why she didn't notice the commotion coming from the royal palace until someone came to collect her.   
  
      "What do you _mean_  it escaped?" Cass growls, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice. Her terrified assistant repeats again that yes, one of her beloved pets has somehow gotten out of its pen and is currently attempting to burrow through the walls of the palace. This is impossible; she designed the containment units herself, and the worms should be docile until called upon. A failure on this level is unfathomable. Against her assistant's protests, she storms down to the lab.   
  
Cass has to pick her way around the rubble, and she grows more furious by the moment, though who exactly her anger is directed at is undetermined. Herself, maybe, for making a fatal error somewhere along the way. Or, some idiot of a science tech who hadn't followed her instructions and had released the worm unintentionally. If they weren't already dead, she was going to kill them. Slowly. Feed them to the sand worms, maybe.   
  
She comes across the creature in question, heaving and flailing as it knocks away anyone who tries to subdue it. It's a precarious situation, because the royal guards can't go all out without the threat of taking down the whole structure. And that would certainly not sit well with the king. So Cass walks up to the worm, brushing off those who try to stop her, and stands before it with arms crossed.   
  
      "Down," She commands, staring down into it's ringed maw of teeth that swirl and snap, "Stop this at once."   
  
The sand worm does no such thing. Which is unthinkable, because she has programmed them on the genetic level to listen to her whims. And yet the world slows to a crawl as it lunges at her, making to devour her unprotected form while she grapples with the impossible scenario before her.   
  
Something-- Someone?-- slams into Cass, knocking them both prone, though there is still the sent of blood in the air and a cry of pain that rings in her ears. Everything goes dull, her senses and perception of time, narrowing down to the arms wrapped around her that pull her away from the rampaging beast. Adrenaline and disbelief keep her world distorted for long moments, disorienting and causing long lost fear to bubble up. Cass clings to her savior for dear life.   
  
      "Cass," a voice chokes out, "Cassava, are you alright?"   
  
Reality comes back to her kicking and screaming. It's all too fast and too loud, as she becomes hyper aware all at once, and it's more than a little overwhelming. She can't find her tongue nor the words to say anything.   
  
      "Cass?" Wakamei says again, those soft eyes filled with worry, which presses strange sensations into the marrow of Cass' bones, "Please, say something."   
  
      "Fine," She trembles, "I'm fine."   
  
Which is more than she can say for Wakamei, whose shoulder is torn open and spilling dark blood. Combined with the acidic venom of the sand worm, she should really have that treated sooner rather than later. It will burn and scar, and fill her body with poison if left unchecked. Wakamei seems heedless to the damage she's taken, instead looking at Cass as though she's the only thing that matters. And that's not _right_ , because no one looks at her like that. She didn't have worth until she stepped up and carved out a place for herself, graduating from a sullen child with no friends to a surly adult who insisted she didn't need any. Wakamei has put herself in harms way for her, and Cass can't stop the swirling emotions that are clawing their way out of her chest.   
  
Wakamei goes to say something, but doesn't have even a moment to breathe before Cass is kissing her. It's desperate and stumbling because Cass has never practiced, never had that want or need before now, though she does her damnedest to perform on the spot. There's no other way she can think to express herself in the moment, and oh, is it wonderful in a way she hadn't realized it could be. It's heat and madness pumping through her veins, kicking the pounding of her heart into overdrive, and the feeling is so _addicting_  even though she fears it will tear her apart. The dying screams of the sand worm are the only thing that distract her.   
  
      "Oh." Is the only thing Wakamei says after a long pause. At first Cass thinks she's misstepped, but there's that blinding smile, the one that illuminates the edges of her ribcage. She's fallen so hard it's a wonder she hasn't bruised her soul before now.   
  
Any elation at the moment falters quickly when she hears a familiar aggressive voice breaking through the chaos.   
  
      "What the hell," begins the king, "Is all of this?"   
  
Cass considers for a moment giving a deadpan and obvious reply, but someone else beats her to it. Which is fine, because she isn't sure if she can trust her voice at the moment, and besides, she has to think of a way to do damage control. She doesn't have much of a plan together before the king and his two hulking attendants are in front of them. Cass can't help but wonder if they do it on purpose, finding the biggest saiyans they can to flank their ruler, who's only a scant few inches shorter than she is. Which maybe lures foreign diplomats into thinking he's not as dangerously destructive as he is. Whatever the case is, it takes all the control her addled mind has left not to laugh.   
  
      "Cassava," Vegeta eyes her dubiously, "What the _fuck_."   
  
She really has no explanation that will satisfy him.   


* * *

  
  
      "But that was months of work!"   
  
      "I told you he wouldn't be happy," Noria chides as Cass mourns the deaths of the rest of the sand worms, "He really hates those things."   
  
      "I don't care!" She cries, bordering on a wail, "I put so much into that project!"   
  
Noria pats her arm sympathetically, but she shakes it off. It's ruined. All ruined, and she still doesn't understand what went wrong in the first place. Cass let's out a frustrated sound.   
  
      "It'll be okay, Cass. You have lots of other things you can work on--"   
  
      "But that's not the point!"   
  
      "Cass, please. It's not the end of the world."   
  
She sits on a broken piece of wall, head in her hands. "You just don't understand."   
  
      "Maybe I don't," Noria agrees, "But you should at least come see Waka with me. I'm sure they're done patching her up by now."   
  
Cass' heart twists, and she expects Noria to tease her when she agrees to come along. But she doesn't. In fact, Noria abandons her when they reach the medical wing, leaving her alone with the person she spontaneously made out with not hours beforehand. Cass still wants to kill Noria, but perhaps she will stay her hand for her daughter's benefit.   
  
      "So," She begins awkwardly, "How... are you?"   
  
      "It's just a scratch." Wakamei insists, though her entire upper arm and chest are bound tight. Something about that sight makes Cass sick to her stomach. "I'll have a cool scar when it's healed."   
  
      "You're an idiot," Cass tells her, but moves to her side, "And I don't know why I like you."   
  
But that would be a mystery to be unraveled another day, when her her nerves weren't burnt out and her mind wasn't fraying at the seams. For now, she will offer what little things she can. Hopefully that will be enough. Wakamei hums and laces their fingers together.   
  
This can be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> so the royal au is something spawned with my rad rp tumblr fam, and I've been meaning to write stuff for it for like 5ever. I owed Star a little thing as a thank u for commissioning my bae, so this happened and then spiraled out of control. :'D will there be more in this verse?? probably, because I have a Problem.


End file.
